With Lucknow Super Giants‘ victory against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, three teams have now qualified for the playoffs in the ongoing IPL 2023. The fourth and final spot in the points table is likely to be taken by either of Mumbai Indians or Royal Challengers Bangalore.
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However, what doesn’t work in Mumbai’s favour with regard to the playoffs berth is that their fate is not entirely in their hands, unlike Bangalore.
The other disadvantage for the Indians is the fact that they play the afternoon game tomorrow, while Challengers play the night match. This means that in case MI do register a huge win, enough to surpass RCB on the Net Run Rate (NRR) facet, the latter will know exactly the required equation to again topple the former in this department as they play later.
What Are The Chances of MI To Qualify?*
For starters, MI will have to win their last league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium. In case they do, they will then have to pray while sitting before the television sets in the evening that RCB lose against Gujarat Titans at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Reason being that if RCB, too, win their last league match, they will do get tied alongside MI on 16 points. However, it is their positive NRR (+0.180) as opposed to MI’s (-o.128), which hands them a huge advantage to make it through to the next stage.
Thus, if both MI and RCB win their respective matches, it will be RCB which goes through while MI gets eliminated. The best case scenario for MI’s qualification would be that they win against SRH, while RCB lose versus Titans.
What If RCB vs GT Match Gets Washed Out?
There is a high possibility that rain might well play a spoilsport during the last league match of the season tomorrow. If the match does get washed out due to rain, RCB will end the season with 15 points, and Mumbai automatically qualifies (with 16 points) given that they win the afternoon match.
If Mumbai do lose, they will end up on the sixth position in the points table and get automatically eliminated regardless of the result of RCB’s match.
*Update: With MI winning the last league match against SRH by 8 wickets, all they would need in order to qualify for the IPL 2023 playoffs is a Gujarat Titans victory against RCB in the presently underway contest in Bengaluru.
